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The Harbinger of Vengeance
Shawn Scott has the perfect life—a rewarding career, a nice house, a loving wife with a healthy baby on the way. But after running into an old acquaintance—a strange man named Aiden Anderson—his life is thrown into a terrifying tailspin. Aiden knows Shawn’s darkest secrets. And he wants to punish Shawn for his history of ruthless bullying by playing a special ‘game.’
Shawn must complete five challenges reflecting the bullying of their past, each one more disturbing than the last. If he fails or quits, his worst secrets will be revealed to the world—secrets with the power to ruin his life.
“The bullied becomes the bully... and the bully becomes the bullied.” Jon Athan, the author of Am I Beautiful? and The Law of Retaliation , invites you to experience a brutal game of vengeance.
Rewritten and re-edited from the ground up, the 2023 Author’s Enhanced Edition of this book is an uncut, uncensored, and extended version of Jon Athan’s debut novel. It is the definitive ‘The Harbinger of Vengeance’ experience.
Shawn must complete five challenges reflecting the bullying of their past, each one more disturbing than the last. If he fails or quits, his worst secrets will be revealed to the world—secrets with the power to ruin his life.
“The bullied becomes the bully... and the bully becomes the bullied.” Jon Athan, the author of Am I Beautiful? and The Law of Retaliation , invites you to experience a brutal game of vengeance.
Rewritten and re-edited from the ground up, the 2023 Author’s Enhanced Edition of this book is an uncut, uncensored, and extended version of Jon Athan’s debut novel. It is the definitive ‘The Harbinger of Vengeance’ experience.
168 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 12, 2016
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648 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 126 reviews
September 15, 2025
3.5 stars.
February 6, 2025
The bully gets bullied!!! 👀
Check the ‼️trigger warnings‼️ before reading this book! It’s extremely gory.
This is the second goriest book I’ve ever read ☠️, and to be honest, the ending was a bit predictable for me.
In this story, the bully becomes the victim of bullying from someone he tormented in high school. The bullied character presents five challenges that the bully must complete. If he fails, his darkest secret will be revealed to his pregnant wife and shared on social media. The challenges are really gory and upsetting.
It's a book you can finish in one sitting, but again, make sure to check the trigger warnings before you start reading.
Check the ‼️trigger warnings‼️ before reading this book! It’s extremely gory.
This is the second goriest book I’ve ever read ☠️, and to be honest, the ending was a bit predictable for me.
In this story, the bully becomes the victim of bullying from someone he tormented in high school. The bullied character presents five challenges that the bully must complete. If he fails, his darkest secret will be revealed to his pregnant wife and shared on social media. The challenges are really gory and upsetting.
It's a book you can finish in one sitting, but again, make sure to check the trigger warnings before you start reading.
April 29, 2023
Is Jon Athan aware that he’s a genius? Serious question. Protect this man at all costs.
September 18, 2025
“You’ll finally feel what it’s like to be dead inside.”
4.5 ⭐️ Shawn got what he deserved.
4.5 ⭐️ Shawn got what he deserved.
March 2, 2025
Books read & reviewed: 8️⃣7️⃣🥖4️⃣0️⃣0️⃣
╔⏤⏤⏤╝❀╚⏤⏤⏤╗
4️⃣🌟, and this is why you don't bully people :D
——————————————————————
➕➖0️⃣1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣4️⃣5️⃣6️⃣7️⃣8️⃣9️⃣🔟✖️➗
Date Read: Saturday, March 1, 2025
Book Length: 35k words: Very damn short
Disturbingness scale: Aiden do be kinda cute doe 🤭😇 out of 1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ potatoes 🥔: 4️⃣7️⃣
So somehow i actually liiiiiiitle bit ship Aiden and Shawn. HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
so this being the first of many disturbing book reads that ill do in march and yeahh~pretty, pretty cool imagery and references, the symbolism of the type of bullying that Aiden experienced reflects all the 5 games [probably not the fifth one :)))] and it serves as a revenge story where Shawn gets to experience what Aiden experienced! But idk, i feel like there's a hidden sexual tension between these two, i cant just pinpoint whyy :D
Pretty Danks 4 @Uswah for the recommendationn
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*Pre-Read✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
The bully gets bullied but make it splatterpunk,. WOOHOOOOO 🥳🎊🎉
╔⏤⏤⏤╝❀╚⏤⏤⏤╗
4️⃣🌟, and this is why you don't bully people :D
——————————————————————
➕➖0️⃣1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣4️⃣5️⃣6️⃣7️⃣8️⃣9️⃣🔟✖️➗
Date Read: Saturday, March 1, 2025
Book Length: 35k words: Very damn short
Disturbingness scale: Aiden do be kinda cute doe 🤭😇 out of 1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ potatoes 🥔: 4️⃣7️⃣
So somehow i actually liiiiiiitle bit ship Aiden and Shawn. HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
so this being the first of many disturbing book reads that ill do in march and yeahh~pretty, pretty cool imagery and references, the symbolism of the type of bullying that Aiden experienced reflects all the 5 games [probably not the fifth one :)))] and it serves as a revenge story where Shawn gets to experience what Aiden experienced! But idk, i feel like there's a hidden sexual tension between these two, i cant just pinpoint whyy :D
Pretty Danks 4 @Uswah for the recommendationn
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*Pre-Read✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
The bully gets bullied but make it splatterpunk,. WOOHOOOOO 🥳🎊🎉
October 23, 2025
I really liked the initial portion of this book. It almost perfectly captured a standard set of experiences of a bullied youth. And, as much as I hate to say this, bullying in schools is such a constant menace. I was heavily bullied and can’t think of anyone else who didn’t experience some degree of it, which is awful. Good to see the laws and policies being tightened up over the years, but there is still a long way to go. So, here we followed Aiden, now grown, who was tortured in high school by several people and grew up extremely traumatized, angry, and vengeful against his former bully, Shawn. It isn’t badly written or executed, but just didn’t introduce anything overly engaging. Just a series of Saw-like instances, all aimed to teach Shawn some ‘lessons’ that he’d never forget. Suited for a very specific audience that enjoys this subgenre of horror, but not strong enough to bring anyone in that doesn’t like the torture and body horror game. The ending was also very vulgar but fit the content, however, didn’t result in any sort of proper resolution for anyone. Again, I really was anticipating a great story after the strong opening, but it slowly lost momentum as the story progressed, as it was all very one-note. I feel like if this took a different route, even avoiding the almost unnecessary adult versions of the characters, and stuck to the adolescent concept, it would have been much stronger. Lots of possibilities there that could have given every part of this book much needed depth and meaning.
December 1, 2024
A revenge thriller you'll read in one sitting. This is messed up and super gross, but that's to be expected with novels like this, so it definitely delivers. Jon Athan's writing is so descriptive and well laid out throughout that you almost feel like you're there with Shawn and Aiden, although the keyword is almost because you hope to never experience anything as insane as what Aiden did to Shawn, not that he didn't have it coming.
August 15, 2025
A victims ultimate revenge
This was such a fun read! The set up for this book seems so simple and effective yet. I don’t think I read anything like it before.
A kid is bullied in school and then grow up to get revenge but in a very horrific and disturbing way.
There are five challenges each memories of the past and is a great example of modern gore and horror.
I really like the conversation between the two characters wrote the dialogue is top-tier and really allows you to sync into the moment in the sick and twisted tale of revenge.
This was such a fun read! The set up for this book seems so simple and effective yet. I don’t think I read anything like it before.
A kid is bullied in school and then grow up to get revenge but in a very horrific and disturbing way.
There are five challenges each memories of the past and is a great example of modern gore and horror.
I really like the conversation between the two characters wrote the dialogue is top-tier and really allows you to sync into the moment in the sick and twisted tale of revenge.
April 27, 2025
THE HARBINGER OF VENGEANCE: AUTHOR’S ENHANCED EDITION [2023] By Jon Athan
My Review 5.0 Stars
I just finished reading the reimagined version of the author’s debut novella originally published two days before Valentine’s Day in 2016. It was his “first real attempt at long-term fiction”. This “Author’s Enhanced Edition” was “rewritten from the ground up with a brand-new opening chapter” and it is the product of the reimagining made real. This full-throated version of his original debut novella was published as a whole new book.
I have been a fan of Jon Athan’s work since my first tentative steps toward the “Extreme” side of the mainstream long-honored horror literature genre. In my imagination I have often visualized the concept of a large auditorium where mainstream horror sits proudly on one side of the bleachers and “Extreme Horror” pushes and shoves its way into filling the bleachers on the opposite side of the stadium. I did not read Jon Athan’s first novel when it originally came out in 2016, and in fact I do not believe I could even see the bleachers on the other side from where I perched at that time.
Earlier this month I read my first “Author Enhanced Edition” by Jon Athan which featured his January 2018 release “Our Dead Girlfriend”. If a rating system can be equated to a thermometer, then it shot past 5 Stars while the mercury exploded through the glass. Jon Athan expressed trepidation about allowing himself creative freedom at that time due to potential censorship of his more extreme content and in his “Dear Reader” bonus content he writes a similar sentiment about his original debut novel in 2016 (Harbinger of Vengeance). Sitting on the other side of the bleachers when both of the aforementioned books were released, I would not have heard any public outcry even if Jon Athan had felt the freedom to unleash his dark and creative imagination as early as 2016.
Jon Athan may not acknowledge his gradual yet effective honing of his craft. The prose is crisp, capable of cruel precision and painful description. His narrative is beginning to sound like a master storyteller, and his aptitude for character development and pacing have also been perfected in those intervening years. In my opinion as a still learning amateur among the throngs of seasoned extreme horror fans I genuinely feel that this guy is clawing his way to the top and is producing the heart stopping novels of an apex predator in his Extreme Horror.
“Harbinger of Vengeance” was a siren song for me since revenge themes and vigilante justice are my favorite niche. Jon Athan exhibited a capacity to flesh out the psychologic damage which afflicted his homicidal child killer in “Our Dead Girlfriend” earlier this month and in this current themed novel of extreme horror he showcases his knowledge of the forensic psychology which turns school age children and teenagers to suicide, school shooters, and psychologically scarred and damaged adults. He additionally pays homage to the making of a school bully which I felt he wrote with chilling accuracy. This outing did not require the rich backstories that he demonstrated his ability to colorful illustrate in “Our Dead Girlfriend”.
In the current universe of the schoolyard bullies and their sadistic, repetitive torturing of their targeted victims he paints a picture of one victim named Aiden and his condensed tale of torment effectively captured in Chapter 1 “THE STRAW THAT BROKE THE CAMEL’S BACK”. I was almost unable to read this chapter without throwing up due to the writer’s crisp, descriptive prose style. In the author’s candid remarks to us readers he acknowledged that this tale was partly personal because he had experienced the hurt of a victim for a brief period in his elementary school years. Let it suffice to say that the acts of taunting and frank physical torture and abuse were too severe to simply label their totality as “bullying” by his tormentors.
The author uses an economy of words in Chapter 2 BEFORE THE STORM to introduce all grown-up and successful Shawn, just an adult version of the leader of the pack. The egotistical self-centered Shawn is seated in a diner with his unsophisticated and somewhat juvenile acting pregnant wife Maribel Scott. The reader immediately dislikes the character of Shawn which was achieved by the author with his inventive staging of the restaurant scene. Shawn is leaving the diner when his exit is blocked by a man he thinks of as a bum needing a wardrobe tip. Then we read the real beginning of the horror with the stranger’s seemingly odd trivia question to Shawn: “Do you know what a harbinger is?” You have read the Tagline, so you know the story you are about to read: “The bullied becomes the bully…and the bully becomes the bullied.”
The adult product of the sustained bullying, emotional and physical damage is embodied in the character of Aiden Anderson. He pervades the insulated self-satisfied orbit of Shawn Scott’s family like a deadly guided missile. But the payload of the destruction is on a timer. Aiden holds Shawn hostage with incriminating video evidence sufficient to destroy Shawn’s professional image, career, and family life. Shawn must complete five challenges which are designed to represent the most damaging episodes of bullying in their past. Aiden wants to punish Shawn for his ruthless bullying in the past by playing a special game. Shawn must not fail at any juncture of the game or Aiden will release the damning evidence of Shawn’s dark secrets into the ether to targeted parties for maximum velocity damage. The action which ensues is excruciating for Shawn in one way or another.
This was taking the temperature of the novel’s intensity at the 75% mark. It was at that mark I stopped reading last night, actually calculating a preliminary rating of 4.0 Stars. I just did not feel that this novel met the high bar set by his Author's Edition of "Our Dead Girlfriend". But I vaguely remembered that in the Jon Athan novel earlier this month it was almost at exactly the 75% mark that the author put the pedal to the metal and all hell broke loose with nonstop bloody violence and horrific carnage.
Then this morning I read the grand finale, and the payload of that deadly guided missile was released into the sheltered atmosphere of Shawn’s existence. Intuitively I knew...and I experienced that sensation like being in an elevator and the suspension cables snap in two and you are free falling and your stomach drops. It feels like nausea tempered by shock. Good lord is all I can say. Five Stars and well earned.
NEW AUTHOR ENHANCED EDITION FROM THE APEX PREDATOR OF EXTREME HORROR
My Review 5.0 Stars
I just finished reading the reimagined version of the author’s debut novella originally published two days before Valentine’s Day in 2016. It was his “first real attempt at long-term fiction”. This “Author’s Enhanced Edition” was “rewritten from the ground up with a brand-new opening chapter” and it is the product of the reimagining made real. This full-throated version of his original debut novella was published as a whole new book.
I have been a fan of Jon Athan’s work since my first tentative steps toward the “Extreme” side of the mainstream long-honored horror literature genre. In my imagination I have often visualized the concept of a large auditorium where mainstream horror sits proudly on one side of the bleachers and “Extreme Horror” pushes and shoves its way into filling the bleachers on the opposite side of the stadium. I did not read Jon Athan’s first novel when it originally came out in 2016, and in fact I do not believe I could even see the bleachers on the other side from where I perched at that time.
Earlier this month I read my first “Author Enhanced Edition” by Jon Athan which featured his January 2018 release “Our Dead Girlfriend”. If a rating system can be equated to a thermometer, then it shot past 5 Stars while the mercury exploded through the glass. Jon Athan expressed trepidation about allowing himself creative freedom at that time due to potential censorship of his more extreme content and in his “Dear Reader” bonus content he writes a similar sentiment about his original debut novel in 2016 (Harbinger of Vengeance). Sitting on the other side of the bleachers when both of the aforementioned books were released, I would not have heard any public outcry even if Jon Athan had felt the freedom to unleash his dark and creative imagination as early as 2016.
Jon Athan may not acknowledge his gradual yet effective honing of his craft. The prose is crisp, capable of cruel precision and painful description. His narrative is beginning to sound like a master storyteller, and his aptitude for character development and pacing have also been perfected in those intervening years. In my opinion as a still learning amateur among the throngs of seasoned extreme horror fans I genuinely feel that this guy is clawing his way to the top and is producing the heart stopping novels of an apex predator in his Extreme Horror.
“Harbinger of Vengeance” was a siren song for me since revenge themes and vigilante justice are my favorite niche. Jon Athan exhibited a capacity to flesh out the psychologic damage which afflicted his homicidal child killer in “Our Dead Girlfriend” earlier this month and in this current themed novel of extreme horror he showcases his knowledge of the forensic psychology which turns school age children and teenagers to suicide, school shooters, and psychologically scarred and damaged adults. He additionally pays homage to the making of a school bully which I felt he wrote with chilling accuracy. This outing did not require the rich backstories that he demonstrated his ability to colorful illustrate in “Our Dead Girlfriend”.
In the current universe of the schoolyard bullies and their sadistic, repetitive torturing of their targeted victims he paints a picture of one victim named Aiden and his condensed tale of torment effectively captured in Chapter 1 “THE STRAW THAT BROKE THE CAMEL’S BACK”. I was almost unable to read this chapter without throwing up due to the writer’s crisp, descriptive prose style. In the author’s candid remarks to us readers he acknowledged that this tale was partly personal because he had experienced the hurt of a victim for a brief period in his elementary school years. Let it suffice to say that the acts of taunting and frank physical torture and abuse were too severe to simply label their totality as “bullying” by his tormentors.
The author uses an economy of words in Chapter 2 BEFORE THE STORM to introduce all grown-up and successful Shawn, just an adult version of the leader of the pack. The egotistical self-centered Shawn is seated in a diner with his unsophisticated and somewhat juvenile acting pregnant wife Maribel Scott. The reader immediately dislikes the character of Shawn which was achieved by the author with his inventive staging of the restaurant scene. Shawn is leaving the diner when his exit is blocked by a man he thinks of as a bum needing a wardrobe tip. Then we read the real beginning of the horror with the stranger’s seemingly odd trivia question to Shawn: “Do you know what a harbinger is?” You have read the Tagline, so you know the story you are about to read: “The bullied becomes the bully…and the bully becomes the bullied.”
The adult product of the sustained bullying, emotional and physical damage is embodied in the character of Aiden Anderson. He pervades the insulated self-satisfied orbit of Shawn Scott’s family like a deadly guided missile. But the payload of the destruction is on a timer. Aiden holds Shawn hostage with incriminating video evidence sufficient to destroy Shawn’s professional image, career, and family life. Shawn must complete five challenges which are designed to represent the most damaging episodes of bullying in their past. Aiden wants to punish Shawn for his ruthless bullying in the past by playing a special game. Shawn must not fail at any juncture of the game or Aiden will release the damning evidence of Shawn’s dark secrets into the ether to targeted parties for maximum velocity damage. The action which ensues is excruciating for Shawn in one way or another.
This was taking the temperature of the novel’s intensity at the 75% mark. It was at that mark I stopped reading last night, actually calculating a preliminary rating of 4.0 Stars. I just did not feel that this novel met the high bar set by his Author's Edition of "Our Dead Girlfriend". But I vaguely remembered that in the Jon Athan novel earlier this month it was almost at exactly the 75% mark that the author put the pedal to the metal and all hell broke loose with nonstop bloody violence and horrific carnage.
Then this morning I read the grand finale, and the payload of that deadly guided missile was released into the sheltered atmosphere of Shawn’s existence. Intuitively I knew...and I experienced that sensation like being in an elevator and the suspension cables snap in two and you are free falling and your stomach drops. It feels like nausea tempered by shock. Good lord is all I can say. Five Stars and well earned.
NEW AUTHOR ENHANCED EDITION FROM THE APEX PREDATOR OF EXTREME HORROR
April 25, 2025
A classic story of revenge where the bully becomes the bullied and is forced to play a game of five challenges, with number five being completely shocking. Bullying is a severe problem that should be stopped but two wrongs don’t make a right and in this story the second wrongs are REALLY wrong!
November 25, 2023
I just love Jon Athan. I didn't read anything bad by this author yet, might happen won't day, I don't think so.
If you like your revenge bloody, dinner is served with "The Harbinger Of Vengeance".
Being someone that was bullied all my school life I can't lie about the fact, that it was liberating to read something like that. We don't see very often books about bullying because of school sh**ters. And the make-believe that bullying doesn't exist anymore. Yeah I don't believe that.
Bully will always exist, but nothing is wrong with reading a book about vengeance. As long as you don't act on it.
If you like your revenge bloody, dinner is served with "The Harbinger Of Vengeance".
Being someone that was bullied all my school life I can't lie about the fact, that it was liberating to read something like that. We don't see very often books about bullying because of school sh**ters. And the make-believe that bullying doesn't exist anymore. Yeah I don't believe that.
Bully will always exist, but nothing is wrong with reading a book about vengeance. As long as you don't act on it.
March 19, 2024
Mr Athan...Congratulations...this has to be one of the best books that I have read of yours...and I've read quite a few believe me! It gripped me in a vice from the very first sentence and that fucking vice just got bloody tighter and tighter the more I turned the pages.
OMG...what a story of shear revenge and vengeance against a school bully,it was written so well and it went beyond shocking many times.
The ending...well...I can't put it into words,apart from WOW..bloody...WOW! I'm still reeling from it.
This book sends a very strong message out...BON APPETIT WHAT EVER YOU EAT!!
A 100% must for all Jon Athan fans...don't miss out on this book... it's a corker!!
OMG...what a story of shear revenge and vengeance against a school bully,it was written so well and it went beyond shocking many times.
The ending...well...I can't put it into words,apart from WOW..bloody...WOW! I'm still reeling from it.
This book sends a very strong message out...BON APPETIT WHAT EVER YOU EAT!!
A 100% must for all Jon Athan fans...don't miss out on this book... it's a corker!!
January 22, 2024
Bully is bad for your health. A good story about revenge.
August 7, 2023
What a ride. Jonny never fails to impress.
September 6, 2025
Oh dang! Fuck around and find out. Fantastic revenge story from a bullied young teen to an adult.
January 31, 2018
Not a bad story...
I usually think it is pretentious when people say this, but I had the twist at the end figured out when I was about 20% in. Maybe it's because I've read a few of his books in a short time or that we share the same twisted ideas when it comes to stories.
I usually think it is pretentious when people say this, but I had the twist at the end figured out when I was about 20% in. Maybe it's because I've read a few of his books in a short time or that we share the same twisted ideas when it comes to stories.
September 30, 2024
Excellent!!
Story 5/5
Narration 5/5
I found The Harbinger of Vengeance by Jon Athan to be captivating and well written.
This book is an excellent extreme, and psychological horror story.
Shawn's bullying changed Aiden forever. Years later, the bullied returned for revenge.
I shed a tear for Aiden, because what Shawn and his friends did to him was horrible. But I couldn't feel sad for Shawn, even though what Aiden did to him was monstrous.
I highly recommend this book, it could even be therapeutic for victims of bullying, in my humble opinion. It was healing for me, I even smiled listening to Shawn's torture. I really enjoyed The Harbinger of Vengeance.
Story 5/5
Narration 5/5
I found The Harbinger of Vengeance by Jon Athan to be captivating and well written.
This book is an excellent extreme, and psychological horror story.
Shawn's bullying changed Aiden forever. Years later, the bullied returned for revenge.
I shed a tear for Aiden, because what Shawn and his friends did to him was horrible. But I couldn't feel sad for Shawn, even though what Aiden did to him was monstrous.
I highly recommend this book, it could even be therapeutic for victims of bullying, in my humble opinion. It was healing for me, I even smiled listening to Shawn's torture. I really enjoyed The Harbinger of Vengeance.
May 14, 2025
A classic revenge story x 100!
I do enjoy bullies getting their comeuppance, but this took it a step further.
I figured out the "final game" but that didn't make it any less heartbreaking.
Good read, perhaps just a little slow in parts.
I do enjoy bullies getting their comeuppance, but this took it a step further.
I figured out the "final game" but that didn't make it any less heartbreaking.
Good read, perhaps just a little slow in parts.
July 20, 2024
Alright I originally read this book back in 2016 I think but I didn't write a review so I decided to read the re-release and write a review. This book is a awesome bully blackmail revenge story that is brutal in a way that Jon Athan can deliver. I really enjoyed re-reading this one. It's also awesome to think that this was one of Jon Athan's first releases and he was only 20 something when he wrote it just awesome. I highly recommend this one and everything Jon Athan
December 9, 2023
Shawn has the perfect life, and has moved firmly past his childhood days. But Aiden has not. Aiden wants revenge, but he wants Shawn to feel the full force of how much Aiden has suffered - and more.
Brutal, absolutely brutal. Classic Jon Athan, his books do not disappoint. Not a book for those who don't like extreme horror! One of Jon Athan's best!
Brutal, absolutely brutal. Classic Jon Athan, his books do not disappoint. Not a book for those who don't like extreme horror! One of Jon Athan's best!
May 7, 2024
Omg, I don't know how many times I'm going to say this but Athan knocked it out of the park again!
I absolutely loved this story, where karma really comes back to bite you in the ass. Our leading character is forced to do tasks, so of course I was addicted to this one.
Athan is definitely one if the masters of body gore, and the ending was absolutely brutal!
4/5
I read the "author's enhanced" version.
I absolutely loved this story, where karma really comes back to bite you in the ass. Our leading character is forced to do tasks, so of course I was addicted to this one.
Athan is definitely one if the masters of body gore, and the ending was absolutely brutal!
4/5
I read the "author's enhanced" version.
September 13, 2025
So, this was meant to be Jon Athan’s first novella, later stretched into what passes for a short novel. The prose is, I'll admit, better than in his other works, those I've read, that is - progress of a sort, I suppose. The story itself trundles along well enough, though it's noticeably less blood-soaked than the usual fare, which almost feels like cheating. As for the ending, I sort of clocked it before the...ending itself, so no great shocks there. All in all, three stars: not atrocious, not brilliant… just pleasantly readable. Quick, straight to the point, and unlikely to linger in anyone's memory... if they're used to "extreme horror", that is.
Next.
Next.
August 6, 2025
"We can handle this like respectable men, okay?"
"But you're not a respectable man,"
This was great. Would recommend if you want to traumatize a high schooler against bullying. 😊
Not really, or maybe, but was still great.
"But you're not a respectable man,"
This was great. Would recommend if you want to traumatize a high schooler against bullying. 😊
Not really, or maybe, but was still great.
May 10, 2024
Simple concept, but done so effectively!
A bullied kid goes out to get his revenge on his former bully 30 years later. So many intense moments in this one. Even though I predicted the ending, I was still engaged (which says a lot considering this book didn’t have to depend on the shock factor to be good).
It seems like this was one of Jon’s first stories which is very impressive. Definitely recommend!
A bullied kid goes out to get his revenge on his former bully 30 years later. So many intense moments in this one. Even though I predicted the ending, I was still engaged (which says a lot considering this book didn’t have to depend on the shock factor to be good).
It seems like this was one of Jon’s first stories which is very impressive. Definitely recommend!
June 25, 2023
I was curious about this book after reading a comment made by Jon Athan himself, that this book was inspired by the bullying he endured as a child.
Shawn and Aiden were classmates and Shawn made it his primary goal to make Aiden's life a living hell. After years of bullying and enduring mental and physical trauma, Aiden is forever changed.
Into their 30's Aiden decides to track Shawn down and make him pay for what he did to him as an adolescent. This story will make you relate to both subjects. The amount of trauma inflicted on Shawn will make you empathize with him, but then Aiden is waving at you saying "Hello, he's the person that ruined my life" and then you relate to Aiden. The story has a sad outcome, as with most of Jon Athan books.
This story will hopefully make you think twice about bullying someone. Not only for what they might do to you in the future, but the mental and physical trauma they endure on a daily basis that can forever change who they are as a person. Thankfully, in the author notes Mr.Athan explains that the bullying against him wasn't this severe.
All I have to say, if I was Aiden's mother, that school and every child involved,would pay for what my child endured. My son was bullied in kindergarten. I won't go into detail, because this isn't about me, but the principal at his school will never forget me and I smile every time I think about it.
Shawn and Aiden were classmates and Shawn made it his primary goal to make Aiden's life a living hell. After years of bullying and enduring mental and physical trauma, Aiden is forever changed.
Into their 30's Aiden decides to track Shawn down and make him pay for what he did to him as an adolescent. This story will make you relate to both subjects. The amount of trauma inflicted on Shawn will make you empathize with him, but then Aiden is waving at you saying "Hello, he's the person that ruined my life" and then you relate to Aiden. The story has a sad outcome, as with most of Jon Athan books.
This story will hopefully make you think twice about bullying someone. Not only for what they might do to you in the future, but the mental and physical trauma they endure on a daily basis that can forever change who they are as a person. Thankfully, in the author notes Mr.Athan explains that the bullying against him wasn't this severe.
All I have to say, if I was Aiden's mother, that school and every child involved,would pay for what my child endured. My son was bullied in kindergarten. I won't go into detail, because this isn't about me, but the principal at his school will never forget me and I smile every time I think about it.
April 23, 2025
One of my favourite things about this novel was the character development. In a fucked up way, I really loved Aiden. Fuck, I even started rooting for Shawn a little. (Not too much though, obviously.)
Starting it, I wasn't too sure I really loved the idea of the five games to teach Shawn a lesson. But I was proven wrong. Though not horribly fucked up, it still packs a punch. Probably the psychological part and the violent part coming together to really make an impact.
Starting it, I wasn't too sure I really loved the idea of the five games to teach Shawn a lesson. But I was proven wrong. Though not horribly fucked up, it still packs a punch. Probably the psychological part and the violent part coming together to really make an impact.
April 30, 2025
The subject matters of bullying and revenge drive home in this extreme horror. Athan crafts a tale where a man is blackmailed into playing a series of games to hide both his past and his current sins. The bullied becomes the harbinger of pain and torment. As the novel reaches it's crushing crescendo the main character has played through several awful scenarios. A couple of scenes in this made me shuffle uncomfortably I won't lie. All in all a brilliant read.
August 27, 2025
Brutal. But the ending wasn’t as satisfying as other if Athan’s books. Narration was a bit robotic when not doing dialogue but it was incredibly easy to understand and calming for me so it worked out well.
September 24, 2025
His debut novella!!! Absolute terror and horror! Well done!
October 3, 2025
lowkey rlly predictable ending and i figured it out halfway through the book
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